


They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [10]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Established Relationship, Immortal Found Family, M/M, Post-Canon, Rape/Non-con Elements, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27480313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Who they target are sometimes small scale. This time, Joe caught the attention of a serial killer who likes to make his victims bleed.Prompt: Blood Loss
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 6
Kudos: 99





	They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and they are as connected as you decide they are. ^_^

Joe really hated it when one of them played bait and it worked a little too well.

His clothes were drenched through with his blood, a slowly forming pool gathering at his bare feet, and he’d lost feeling in his arms a long time ago.

On the bright side, the sick bastard had gotten so obsessed with seeing just how much he could make Joe bleed before the cuts, gashes, and slices of missing flesh healed that he’d seemingly forgotten that the reason he’d even pulled the knife out when he did was because Joe hadn’t been letting him grope at him without serious struggling. Only his hands were chained above him, even if the chain was high enough that Joe’s toes barely brushed the floor but that still afforded him plenty of mobility.

He just had to fight enough until Nicky got there to free him and destroy this murderer.

They’d been working something they didn’t get the chance to do as often: taking out a serial killer. They faced the same difficulties cops did in finding the killer, working fast enough to unquestioningly identify them without tipping them off and making them panic and run.

They’d been in Nevada for two weeks now tracking a killer who was targeting men in the area, raping them, and cutting them up pretty grotesquely for the past six months. They had suspected the man Walter Matthews to be the killer and had decided to have Nicky and Joe try to catch Matthews’ attention at bars he hit often, Andy with one of them and Nile with the other as backup. The night before he’d talked to Nicky but hadn’t shown too much interest, which may have come down to that Nicky had put on a more passive air than he normally would, seeing if vulnerability was what Matthews went for and he could pull it off better than Joe.

Matthews had been much more interested in Joe, approaching him before Joe could work his way over, some of the things he’d said and did telling Joe and his centuries of reading people that this was who they were looking for and that was before the guy had slipped a roofie into his drink. And it took just long enough for the drug to be worked out of his system for the guy to get him out of the bar and heading towards his car, Nile and Nicky following behind.

But Matthews had caught them coming after and had actually stopped their pursuit with a fucking grenade that they had no idea he’d had and Nile and Nicky had been too close to the blast to have not lost a limb along with the obvious deaths.

Matthews had managed to get cuffs on Joe on the way and had just pulled Joe off his feet to drag him across the concrete when he’d hit the other two with the grenade. When he’d seen that, he’d nearly gotten his feet under him when Matthews had tried to calm him down by stabbing him in the side, the location and depth so that it wouldn’t have been enough to kill Joe even without the immortality but more to distract him with pain. Unfortunately, that had been how he found out about the healing and he’d gotten this _hungry_ look in his eyes before slamming Joe’s head into the concrete and then he just kept knocking Joe out every time he woke up.

Joe wondered absently at some point if he could get concussed enough that this power that healed them would start mistaking that for his normal state and would stop fixing that damage.

He’d attributed that thought to that latest concussion not being healed yet.

“You were made for me,” the man had declared as soon as Joe was hanging from his ceiling and he likely figured he was free to do as he pleased.

Joe had rolled his eyes at that. “No, I really wasn’t. I have long since found the one I was born to be with. He will not appreciate this.”

Nicky was going to be so far beyond enraged once he saw Joe that they might have to actually work at Nicky keeping his vengeance quick. Nicky wouldn’t regret causing this man as much pain as possible but they’d already overstayed their welcome on this and they would already need to clean up everything he’d done to Joe.

Maybe Copley would do them a favor. He still owed them plenty for the whole Merrick thing.

Joe’s hair was grabbed and his head pulled back as the knife was buried into his back right along his spine and while the stab wound burned with pain, he lost all sensation in his legs and he felt some panic.

They all agreed that being paralyzed was one of the scarier experiences and it was unfortunately one of those that happened semi-regularly.

It was made worse by how the knife wasn’t pulled back out but was being twisted back and forth in him and he gritted his teeth against the enduring pain. What the fucker wouldn’t know about was the pain that came from Joe’s body trying to push the knife out so it could heal.

A tongue licked up along the back of Joe’s neck and the disgust from that was just about enough to help him get past the pain.

“That sound of you in pain, it’s just so gorgeous. Do it again.”

It was definitely Nile’s influence that had Joe replying through the pain with a simple, “Gross.”

The knife was pulled out and then immediately plunged back in, a little lower and off to the side. More than anything, Joe was just happy that he got feeling back in his legs a few seconds later as the part of the wound that had caused him paralysis healed.

The tongue on his neck stopped lapping at him but then he felt teeth dig into his skin enough that there would be a mark. Only for a few seconds before it healed but it was still irritating that Matthews thought he had the right to mark Joe up like that.

He left the knife in Joe’s back and started nauseatingly groping him again, sliding his hands around to Joe’s chest before sliding down and back around to squeeze at his ass.

“That’s enough,” Joe declared as he drove his foot up into the man’s groin, satisfied with the yelp of pain he got as Matthews stumbled away. Joe didn’t usually like going for groin shots as it really wasn’t the most reliable target everyone liked to think it was but that fucker deserved it.

He was about to be very grateful that he and Nicky had gone on a training spree a few years ago, checking out what was popular at the time and that had included gymnastics, which ended up complimenting the grappling style martial arts they’d already explored over the years.

He quickly grabbed at the chains linking his hands to the ceiling, needing to actually look up because he couldn’t feel what he was doing. Once he had a stabilizing hold, he rocked his legs back and forward until he had the momentum to kip up his legs, folding himself so he could hook his leg over his arms first and then slid it up to be over the chain so he could rotate his arms down. It was really uncomfortable and if he weren’t immortal he would have been concerned about the damage he was causing himself but he was in a better position and he could work the chain free from here. He could also drop down onto Matthews when he recovered enough to come at him again.

The knife was still in his back but it was being pushed out gradually and he would be healed up soon.

He almost had the link of the chain separated from the hook when Matthews reached for him again, looking pissed. He grabbed at Joe’s shirt, the fabric barely qualifying as a shirt anymore with how the asshole had been cutting away at it to reveal Joe’s skin.

Knowing he’d lose the progress he’d made but accepting that, Joe untwisted his body and let his legs fall free, wrapping his legs around Matthew’s neck, pinning his arm on one side and then hooking his foot in the crook of his knee and tightening as much as he could without having his arms to help with the choke. He could only knock the man out for a short amount of time with the triangle choke but it should be enough time to get himself out of the chains.

He hated breaking his thumb to get out of cuffs but it was looking like that would be the best option here or he’d just have a repeat of this and the guy would be expecting him to be fighting back.

Except he couldn’t actually tighten his legs enough for the choke to be effective enough to knock Matthews out. His struggling wasn’t as strong as it could be but he wouldn’t go unconscious.

Well, onto the next option. Joe didn’t have the luxury of time on this one. His arms had been deprived of blood flow for too long for him to hold himself up much longer and while the temporary change in position had helped, it didn’t make the time he’d been chained go away.

He used Matthews’ shoulders to help push himself up a bit, shifting his grip from just holding onto the chain to reaching his right hand to grab the chain securing his left wrist and vice versa. He pulled himself up so his hands were close to his shoulders before he eased his legs’ hold on the man, then kicked him to sprawl to the floor.

Joe switched the positioning on his hands again to work a little higher, his shoulders down to his fingers burning with the effort and he wondered briefly if Nicky would be up to taking up rock climbing. It was something they hadn’t really done and it was supposed to be a good way to train the body and he would appreciate something like this not being so much of a strain the next time around.

A little bit more and he could grab onto the chain holding the hook rather than the chain holding him and that would be all he needed to work it free. Matthews was working his way to his feet, looking plenty pissed and ready to take it all out on Joe.

Joe heard footsteps upstairs and felt better already.

Matthews came at him and he kicked out again, a well-aimed kick landing on the killer’s chest before a second one caught him right in the face and he stumbled away with blood dripping out of his nose.

Joe, meanwhile, lifted himself up that last little bit and the chain link was freed from the hook holding him up and his grip gave out, leaving him falling about eight feet to the concrete floor and knocking the breath out of him.

And also pushing the knife all the way down to the hilt into his back and he couldn’t help the strained shout of pain, having forgotten that it hadn’t actually fallen out completely yet. It had been close though and he’d just been unlucky that it got pushed in instead of being knocked out. He rolled to the side and reached behind him to pull it out even as he tried to get his breath back.

Matthews recovered faster than he had and was suddenly straddling Joe’s hip, grabbing clumsily at his arm to try and push him down to the floor.

Joe rolled his eyes at how this guy just didn’t give up before he shifted to his back on his own and then sat up to hook the chain around Matthews’ neck, wrapping it around him completely once and then laid back to tighten the chain and applied a much more effective choke.

He didn’t need to apply it for long though as a single shot echoed through the room and the bullet cut through Matthews’ temple and his body went lax against Joe, who leaned as much to the side as he could so he wasn’t completely underneath the now dead man.

Nicky was at his side, pushing at the body as Joe unwrapped the chain so he didn’t need to follow, sitting up once he was freed.

Nile came up on his other side, holding a set of keys and she started working through which one would get him out of the cuffs. “Sorry it took so long. Nicky lost his right arm and my legs were such a mess they might as well have started from scratch,” she explained, her eyes scanning over him as she found the right key and the cuff fell off his left wrist, the skin healing from where it had spent so long digging into him especially as all his weight had been pulling on them. He shook out his hand as she unlocked the other one and the last bit of tingling in his arms passed.

“And here I thought you might finally experience having to regrow a limb,” Joe replied as he smiled at Nicky taking his hands, his love massaging at his hands and then up his arms.

“And I’m determined to put that off as long as possible.”

“Where’s Andy?”

“Still on her way, sulking on the phone with Copley about a clean-up.”

“Good. This place will need it or people will start to think there’s another body they should be looking for when DNA doesn’t match the bodies they’ve found.” Advancements in DNA had been reason enough for one of the times Nicky had gone back to school, learning how they could most efficiently ruin any DNA they left behind to try and cut back on how many different people were looking for them without knowing who they were.

“How many times?” Nicky suddenly asked and Joe turned his attention to his love. He rested his hand on Nicky’s cheek, glad that his hands were relatively clean.

But Nicky wanted a count of how many deaths he’d missed and Joe was happy to put him at ease. “None. Remember, he liked making his victims bleed to death.”

And it took _a lot_ of very purposeful effort to get one of them to bleed to death. Between their wounds healing and their blood being replenished quickly, someone had to be injuring them extensively and consistently to get them to bleed to death. The quickest was, of course, hitting an artery but there had even been times where that wasn’t fast enough.

“We took too long following. He wasn’t supposed to get you back here,” Nicky was scolding himself.

“He also wasn’t supposed to have an explosive. We don’t control everything. And based on his interests of what to do with me, this was preferrable.”

Nicky’s gaze really got dark then and he looked over to Matthews, making sure he was really dead just in case he could take some of that rage out on him if he wasn’t.

Nicky would be staying close to Joe tonight and he would likely need some intense sparring tomorrow to help his anger pass. It had been a while since they’d sparred, their focus mostly directed toward training Nile, and it would be good for her to see how they challenged themselves with a fight against each other.

Joe leaned forward, touching his forehead to Nicky’s and whispered a quick, “I love you.” It would be something to calm Nicky for now.

“And I love you. Always,” Nicky replied automatically but no less genuinely. “We should get you out of here.”

“That would be fantastic. And hopefully Copley can cash in a favor with someone so we don’t have to come back down to clean up the mess.”

Nicky stood and helped pull Joe up as well, keeping a hold of him as he made sure Joe was steady on his feet. Nile came back from where she’d been making a quick round of the room, checking everything. Nicky handed Joe’s jacket back to him and he gratefully put it on to cover the shredded remains of his shirt. He checked that his wallet with the ID he’d been using while here was still in the pocket. Nile then went back to where his stuff had been thrown aside and tossed him his shoes one at a time.

Ready to leave, they headed upstairs and out to where Andy was waiting in the car.

And she was, indeed, still sulking about mostly being on the sidelines for this one. But she at least gave them the good news that Copley would take care of making sure no one got a hold of a good sample of Joe’s DNA.

“Well, then I guess that’s one favor down. Only however many more we decide to go from him,” Joe joked as he settled into the backseat with Nicky.

“Hey, Joe,” Andy said from the driver seat, glancing over her shoulder at him.

“Yeah?” he responded, cautious.

“If you’re going to get yourself caught like that, at least be waiting by the door for us when we do catch up. You’re better than this.”

Joe grinned at the tease. “My apologies, boss. I thought both Nicky and Nile lost a limb and I had more time. I didn’t feel like sitting around on the porch for long.”

Nile looked between the two and then let out a frustrated sigh. “I just don’t get you two. He’s covered in blood and you’re telling him he should have had things settled.”

“Well, he should have,” Andy said with a dismissive shrug. “Joe’s got horrible luck with getting chained up. But that also means he’s the best at getting out of them on his own.”

Nile looked back at him and he shrugged with a grin. “I enjoy having people who are willing to chain another person up experience just how little power they truly have. I used to always carry something to pick the locks but then I just learned how to use most restraints as weapons and saved the time-consuming process of lockpicking for afterwards. And, believe it or not, it is so much easier to pick locks on someone else than yourself so it takes even longer. Quite inconvenient, all things considered.”

Nile just shook her head as she turned back to the front. “Holy shit, you’re weird.”

“Just dealing with what life has given me as best I can.”

He said that dismissively enough now but he knew that he wouldn’t be sleeping well for the next few nights and he felt simultaneously thankful and bad for Nicky. His love would be there to comfort him without a second’s hesitation but it would be in exchange of his own rest and Joe always felt bad about that. It didn’t matter that he would do exactly the same thing for Nicky. It was just part of who they were.

**Author's Note:**

> I completely believe, based on techniques used by Andy, Joe, and Nicky in the movie, that they have trained in more modern martial arts and the kind of maneuvering Joe does here are things that someone training in something like Brazilian Jiujitsu would have gotten used to. I know from experience ^_^.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I really hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a kudo or a comment if you so feel inclined and I promise I will love appreciate your feedback.


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